German, Six Americans on Medical Mission Murdered in Afghanistan Ambush

By Eltaf Najafizada and Susan Decker -
Aug 8, 2010

Taliban insurgents claimed
responsibility for the deaths of six Americans, a Briton, a
German and two Afghan interpreters killed in northern
Afghanistan in what the U.S. called a “despicable act.”

An Afghan identified as Sayfullah who survived the incident
told police the slain foreigners were medical staff from the
state-run Noor hospital in Kabul, Agha Noor Kemtuz, provincial
police chief of Badakhshan province, said by telephone.

Kemtuz said the survivor told him the group had been
traveling for 15 days in Panjsher, Nuristan and Badakhshan
provinces. Bodies of the 10 people were recovered in a remote
forested area.

“Two days ago, they returned to Karan wa Manjan and
stopped their vehicles to have dinner,” Kemtuz quoted Sayfullah
as saying. “A group of insurgents with long white and black
beards and long white Afghan clothes with turbans arrived.”

The insurgents searched the pockets of the group, took
their money and after several minutes shot and killed them,
Kemtuz said Sayfullah told police.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the
killings as a “despicable act of wanton violence.”

“They were doctors, nurses and medical technicians and
their mission was humanitarian and wholly independent from that
of any government,” Clinton said in a statement. “The Taliban
stopped them on a remote road on their journey from Nuristan,
led them into a forest, robbed them and killed them.”

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed, reached by phone from
an unknown location, said the group claimed responsibility for
the killings of nine foreigners -- five men and four women --and
a translator in the area.

Christianity

“They were not doctors. They were trying to spread the
Christian religion in Karan wa Manjan,” Mujahed said. “And at
the other hand they were spies. Our Mujahedeen people arrived
there and tried to stop them, but they escaped and our
Mujahedeen had to open fire on them.”

The International Assistance Mission, which describes
itself as an international Christian organization providing
education and health aid in Afghanistan, said on its website it
has been informed that 10 foreign and Afghan people, likely
members of a team providing eye care in communities in Nuristan,
were killed while returning to Kabul.

“This tragedy negatively impacts our ability to continue
serving the Afghan people as IAM has been doing since 1966,”
according to a statement on the website. “We hope it will not
stop our work that benefits over a quarter of a million Afghans
each year.”

Record of Cruelty

Clinton said the Taliban has a well-documented record of
cruelty.

“Its members have assassinated tribal elders and thrown
acid in the face of young girls. Earlier this summer, they
accused a 7-year-old boy of spying and hung him,” Clinton said
in her statement today. “With these killings, they have shown
us yet another example of the lengths to which they will go to
advance their twisted ideology.”

The British victim was Dr. Karen Woo, a general physician,
who was to be married to a man also working in Afghanistan.

“The expedition will require a lot of physical and mental
resolve and will not be without risk but ultimately, I believe
that the provision of medical treatment is of fundamental
importance and that the effort is worth it in order to assist
those that need it most,” Woo had written in a posting on the
her website related to the expedition.

One of the Americans was Tom Little, a 61-year-old
optometrist from upstate New York who had once hid in a basement
from the Taliban in the 1990s and survived rocket attacks during
his four decades in Afghanistan, the New York Times reported.

“He had had so many close calls before,” Little’s
brother, John Little, told the Times in a telephone interview.
“He wasn’t fearless, but he was at peace with danger.”

Another American was Thomas Grams, 51, who had quit his
dental practice in Colorado four years ago to work with a group
that provides free dental care to children in Nepal and
Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported, citing a spokeswoman
for the group, Global Dental Relief.